Zone Defense Gets It Done for Union Local

Jets stay unbeaten with victory at John Marshall

January 15, 2014

MOUNDSVILLE - The Union Local Jets normally don't play a lot of zone defense.

After baffling John Marshall in a 59-38 victory Wednesday night inside the John Marshall Field House, Jets coach Ben Porter may give it some additional thought.

"That's probably the first time we've played zone for that extended amount of time," Porter said. "There are always going to be things to correct, so we'll keep working on it and try to make it even better. We'd like to keep a balance (defensively) between man and zone, but the zone was good for us."

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The Jets (11-0) are in the midst of an NBA-like stretch of games. They played host to Barnesville on Tuesday in a slugfest and will visit Harrison Central on Friday.

"I thought we bounced back pretty well," Porter said. "It's a credit to the kids for stepping up and playing. I thought we played hard and with a lot of enthusiasm."

Meanwhile, the Monarchs' struggles continued as they dropped to 3-7 on the season.

"The bottom line is they can shoot and we can't," JM coach Bill Storm. "We were able to take them out of their man because we wanted to make (Colten McKivitz) come out to guard and then go by him, which we did. But, they went to zone and we can't throw it in the ocean. It's just disappointing."

The Jets had built a couple of double-digit leads, but the Monarchs were able to chip away. However, they were never able to get on a significant run to make the visitors uncomfortable.

After Hunter Sadoski connected on a buzzer beater to end the third quarter, the Monarchs found themselves down 39-33.

The teams traded buckets to begin the fourth, but that was as close as John Marshall got. The Jets went on a 13-0 run and ended the game on a 18-3 spurt.

The Union Local inside duo of McKivitz and David Paulick simply had its way with the Monarchs in the paint. Add in the perimeter play of sophomore Trenton Tipton and junior Gavin Porter and the Jets were too much.

"We made the extra pass and did a good job of finding the open man," Porter said. "At times, I thought we made too many passes because I thought we passed up some good looks, but you can't fault a kid for that. Overall, this was a good team effort."

Tipton and Porter led the Jets scoring attack with 16 and 15, respectively. McKivitz added a double-double with 11 points, 11 boards and he blocked three shots. Paulick added 10 points.

John Marshall was led by Josh Smith's 12 points. Sadoski added eight. Tanner Filben, who hit seven 3-pointers Tuesday against Brooke, was limited to just five points.

"At times, I think we're getting better, but (Wednesday night) I thought we took two steps back," Storm said. "We're really weak inside and (Union Local) really took advantage of us in there. They can go inside and outside. They have a nice team."